Sam Freeman  grew up watching and helping his father farm in the small town of Martin, Tenn. It began by sitting down and discussing his dad’s day with him. Sam said when he was about five years old, he would go sit by the tub while his dad took a bath and they would talk about their cattle or their crops.

When Sam got older, he began to help more. “From a young age I enjoyed it. I never really saw myself doing anything else,” says Freeman. He never had any job other than working for his father.

Today, Sam cares for 2,000 acres of row crop land as well as 500 acres of pasture. The business is split 50/50 between cattle and row crops. Each year he grows 1,000 acres of corn and 1,000 acres of soybeans. The pastures support his beef cattle operation. During the winter, he grazes 1,000 acres of row crop which cuts the amount of winter wheat down to 250 to 300 acres. His brother, John Robert, is an equal partner in the operation.

This year, the biggest setback has been weather. The heavy rains earlier in the year caused many ditches, needed to be disked before planting. They also had to build three retention dams in some of their lower lying fields to stop the flow nearby bodies of water.

Freeman says, “The weather has been less than ideal, but we work really hard when it’s not raining. The fact that it’s cool and wet has slowed us down tremendously this year.”

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When it rains, Sam says, he feeds the cattle. They cut ryegrass for hay before planting some fields because the grass had gotten too tall. Because they graze cattle, they till more than average, which slows planting progress in the spring.

Adjustments

For the Freeman brothers, this year has seen a few adjustments. Sam says, “Agronomy has almost taken a second seat to being economical. The biggest adjustment we’ve had to make this year is not using things like fungicide in order to be more profitable. We may have to skimp on things that would be agronomical just to be economical.”

If the weather had permitted, Freeman says, he would have planted all corn this year just to make a little more money. “I make the best decision I can for the moment. I always start with a plan, but it never goes as planned,” he said.

While Freeman has consistently planted corn, wheat and beans, this year he plans to plant 50 acres of millet and run cattle on that land instead of planting beans.

The Freeman’s farm is a Century Farm and has been owned and run by seven generations of family members. The heart of the farm can be traced back to land grants from the Revolutionary War.

Sam and John Robert worked with their father for years and officially took over when he passed away in May 2011. That year the corn had already been planted and they were beginning to plant beans.

The following year they began to make all the decisions. As if dealing with the loss of their dad and becoming the sole decision-makers for the farm weren’t daunting enough, the weather was not in their favor. “That year was the worst drought we had ever seen up until then,” says Sam.

Farm labor

In the past, May and June have been the busiest months and they have had to hire more help and work later hours to get everything done. Although it can be hard to find help, Freeman says he usually tries to keep two full-time and two part-time farm hands, sometimes three if necessary. They also receive help from their wives who run errands to pick up lunches or parts for equipment. Sam and John Robert’s mother is also a great deal of help by keeping their kids.

As for the future of the Freeman farm, Sam expressed an interest in hemp farming. With the ever-increasing demand for hemp-based products, this venture could prove to be lucrative for the Freeman brothers and their farm operation.